Leon Edwards entered the hearts of MMA enthusiasts across the globe with a scintillating come-from-behind head-kick knockout of Kamaru Usman at UFC 278. The victory was interestingly an ode to his nickname, “Rocky”.
Edwards was one of the names in contention to headline UFC 300 before the promotion went with Alex Pereira and Jamahal Hill, much to the chagrin of fight fans. Now, Tim Simpson, the manager of Edwards revealed the names offered to Edwards to fight at the coveted PPV.
Leon Edwards’ manager discloses names of offered fighters for UFC 300
Leon Edwards successfully defended the welterweight title for the second time, against Colby “Chaos” Covington at UFC 296. After the victory, Edwards expressed his desire to fight for the middleweight title at UFC 300.
Dana White revealed that they had offered three fights to Edwards for UFC 300, all of which he accepted. However, the three fighters declined to fight Edwards at the event. As expected, the three fighters were Islam Makhachev, Shavkat Rakhmonov, and Khamzat Chimaev, as revealed by Tim Simpson.
The aforementioned fighters are in the lightweight, welterweight, and middleweight divisions respectively. Nonetheless, all the fights offered were for the welterweight title. Since all three of the fighters were Muslims and had to observe Ramadan, they declined to fight.
Simpson also revealed that Belal Muhammad was never offered to them even though they asked for it. The manager revealed that Muhammad was not the marquee fighter that the promotion was looking for in UFC 300.
Belal Muhammad reacts to revelation from Leon Edwards camp
Funnily enough, even though he is a Muslim who had to observe Ramadan, Belal Muhammad was willing to fight Leon Edwards at UFC 300. Muhammad was the backup fighter at UFC 296 when Edwards fought Covington. It needs to be noted that Covington was the backup fighter when Edwards fought Kamaru Usman at UFC 286.
After the revelation by Tim Simpson about Muhammad never being offered to them, the 2nd ranked welterweight made his feelings known on X. “Leon, his manager, his coach, his brother ..all b*tches”, tweeted Muhammad. The Palestinian-American fighter is on a huge win streak in the division, second only to Edwards.
Leon, his manager, his coach, his brother ..all bitches
— Belal Muhammad (@bullyb170) April 11, 2024
Moreover, Dana White had already said in a past interview that Muhammad would soon fight for the title. At the UFC 300 press conference, White revealed that they will be going into Manchester in 2024 which would likely mean that Muhammad will get the next title shot as Edwards will surely fight at the event.
Edwards and Muhammad had already fought before, just after the travel restrictions due to COVID-19 were lifted. The fight ended in a No Contest after an inadvertent eye-poke from Edwards rendered Muhammad unable to continue per the Athletic.
Do you think Leon Edwards will defend the title against Belal Muhammad or will Muhammad ever get a chance to do so? Leave your thoughts about it below!
